All-Europe Party Candidates Conference

Joint Party Formation Commission

Frankfurt, Germany

March 28, 2008

Speech by Dr. Aklilu Ghirmai

 What Kind of a Political Party Will We Establish?

 Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, chairperson ELF-RC,

Members of ELF-RC leadership,

Party candidates,

First, let me begin by thanking the leadership and members of ELF-RC for dissolving their organization, which has created a new and favorable condition for our struggle. ELF-RC executive members in particular have been instrumental in the process of party formation, and we are thankful for the contribution they have made.

The phase we are in demands a well developed political organization and action. ELF-RC acted on this historic demand and pioneered the effort of establishing a broad base political party by opening a new chapter for all concerned Eritreans. Subsequently, the Joint Party Formation Commission (JPFC), mandated to lead the process of establishing the party until the convention of the founding congress was created.

So, the objective of our first conference under the theme of “the party we strive to establish, how should it look” is to open discussion on the party we intend to establish. In this, we the members of the commission, forward topics we think would invigorate the discussion. During the course of the discussion, we anticipate to receive ideas that will enrich our draft political platform. As we explained it all along through our writings, the founding congress is the only body mandated to adopt the final platform of the party. However, to elaborate more upon our draft political platform, allow me to begin by a brief introduction on the social formation of our society.

Social formation of our society

Eritrea comprises different ethnic groups, languages, religious beliefs, and social groups. Our draft political platform, therefore, respects the diversity, differences, and unity of Eritrean people on the one hand, and supports various ethnic groups to preserve their distinctive identity, background, and pride on the other. This would bring Eritrean people to the level of reflecting and working towards their common values and interests within the state of Eritrea.

Further, long before the arrival of European colony, the present day Eritrea was divided into many decentralized administrative units each one having their own governing institutions and laws. Our political program should reflect and consider this type of decentralized system already known to our society.

Similarly, the village, district, and provincial level of administrative experience long practiced in Eritrea are relevant to development of decentralization structure in future Eritrea. Hence, our party should use this experience as a starting point in devising the decentralization system of governance.

As is known, the modern African countries are the creation of European colonial powers. European colonial powers drew the borders and territories without considering the historical, social, and ethnic backgrounds of the inhabitants. Thus, the modern Eritrea is the creation of Italian colony.

Ultimately, the Eritrean people’s resistance against Italian colonialism on the one hand, and thirty years of armed struggle against Ethiopian occupation on the other, materialized and resulted in the formation of Eritrean national identity. Even though the struggle and resistance against colonialism developed our national political psychic, yet we have not evolved to the kind of national structure that would embrace the social harmony and nondiscriminatory relationship between members of our social groups. Notably, our national psychic and identity have encountered dangerous tendencies during the course of our armed struggle. Even now, those tendencies are emerging. That is why Eritrean nationalism (identity) is still evolving as well as requiring extra effort to make the nation-building process happen. In Eritrea, some of the main socio-political questions in the future will be:

·         What is the appropriate strategy for nation-building in the present Eritrean context?

There are no easy answers to such important questions. Nonetheless, our political program has to give answers on these issues.

My presentation focuses on three fundamental subjects:

·         First, what would be the basic pillars of our political program?

·         Second, what would be the internal structure of our party?

·         Third, what would be the style and method of operation of the party leadership?

1. What would be the basic pillars of our political program?

The objective of the party we intend to establish is to build Eritrea based upon democratic governance, social justice and peace, and development of “national unity”. Namely, our vision and role is to institute change on the democratization process and social justice as well as to introduce a new political culture. Specifically, democratic change and new political culture are core objectives in our party.

The basic pillars of our party:

1.        To protect human and democratic rights

2.        To establish secular democratic system

3.        To institute decentralized governance

4.        To ensure public participation on political process and decision-making

5.        To formulate economic policy that encourages capital investment

6.        To create balanced economic development and  equitable social justice policy

1.1     Protection of human and democratic rights

The protections of human and democratic rights are the main pillars of our political program. And what are the standard measurements of democratic and human rights protection in Eritrean context? Here, our fundamental understanding on human and democratic rights is not only limited to the protection of individual right, but also includes the rights of ethnic groups, languages, religions, associations, women, and the rights of other oppressed parts of our society. The preceding understanding and interpretation is based on the social structure of Eritrean society; it is also based on how we measure the essence of human and democratic rights in our society.

In western liberal democracies, the right of individual is recognized not only as a core right, but also above group rights. We understand this interpretation on ‘human rights’ does not reflect the state of Eritrea’s societal composition. For us, human right encompasses both individual and social groups’ rights.

After all, the primary existence of state, government, national constitution, and economic system is to protect human and democratic rights and not the other way around.

Overall, full protection of human rights is based on ensuring civic liberty rights, political participation, and social rights (such as food security, education, and eradication of illiteracy, employment, and health).

1.2 Establish secular democratic government

Establishing a secular government is the second pillar in our political program. What is our understanding on secular government?

In principle, secular system of government refers to the separation of state and religion in a given national political system. Since our society is religiously diverse, the establishment of secular political system, we believe, guarantees the right and equality of all religions on one hand, and prevents the domination of one religion over others on the other.

For one thing, prior to the arrival of Italian colony, the history of horn of Africa and particularly that of Eritrea was marred by religious warfare. For example, Tigrean rulers led violent religious wars to expand the influence of Christianity in Eritrea. In the same way, the Mohaddists and Turks waged religious warfare to spread Islam in Eritrea. Part of our history is; therefore, a history of religious domination. It is with this background that we take the establishment of secular government in our country as a main pillar of our political program. Such political system we believe presents better solution and leads to religious peaceful coexistence in our country.

What is our understanding on democratic system of governance?

We understand a democratic system of government as a system, which derives its powers from a national constitution: free election, rule of law, and separation of powers (between legislative, executive, and judicial); a system based on decentralized governance; and a system that considers the diversity of our society and the diversity of opinions as essential components of democratic system.

Similarly, the question of what form of government should we establish in future Eritrea is a subject that has as much weight as the democratic system itself. So, what form of government do we support? As is known, aside from the brief federation era, Eritrean people’s experience on democratic system of governance is very much limited. For this reason, the form of government we seek to establish in Eritrea should reflect the objective conditions and developments of our people on the one hand, and one that progresses with the international development of democratic system of governance on the other.

Seen from the experience of many countries, the political stability of a country and government is a precondition for building and developing democracy. The other question related to this is also how to ensure the limitation of power of the government as well as the checks and balances between the institutions of the country, namely the parliament, government, and the president.

The following are some examples of forms of governments that our party should consider:

·         Presidential system

·         Parliamentary system and

·         Semi-presidential system

1.3    Institute decentralized governance

Decentralized governance is the third pillar in our political program. Why would the party formation commission support decentralized governance?

The commission supports decentralized governance because such governance serves as a foundation for proportional participation, distribution of powers, and political participation. In addition, such governance prevents injustice and unfair practices of governance. The commission; at the same time, believes that the village, district, and provincial system of administration long practiced in Eritrea will play a positive role in instituting the decentralized governance in our country.

While decentralized governance may not solve all possible conflicts at one time, it can; however, create a mechanism for dialogue between governments and people on the one hand, and between members of different societal groups on the other.

More importantly, political stability, building economic development, protecting the rights of ethnic groups, and minorities rely on the form of government system we establish. Hence, the preceding essential points go hand in hand with the development of democratic change in the country. One cannot exist without the other in our situation.

As commission, we believe the diversity of religions, ethnic groups, languages, and regions based upon “national unity in diversity” preserves and achieves Eritrean nationalism and identity. This is one of the main pillars in our political program.

Our vision on decentralized governance in future Eritrea:

·         The function of decentralized governance must be reflected in financial, social, cultural, and language of the local government (with specific geographical boundaries).

·         Proportional representation in the institutions of the country

·         Ensure balanced economic growth across Eritrea

·         Ensure equal opportunity for all different members of our social groups in all aspects of social spheres.

Yet, there are more questions on decentralized governance that must be debated and addressed during the course of our party formation:

·         The limitations and responsibilities of decentralized governance based on village, district, and provincial vs. the central government.

·         What are the policies exclusively left to be formulated by provincial governments?

·         What requirements have to be met by the provincial governments to free themselves from the influence and dependence on the central government?

·         How do we achieve balanced economic growth and financial resources of the provincial governments? What is the role of the central government to achieve this?

1.4    Public participation on the national political process and decision-making

Public participation on the national political process and decision-making is the fourth pillar in our political program.

How can we achieve public participation on political decision-making process?

Public participation both in national political process and in the democratic change plays a decisive role. For this reason, the party we intend to establish must have a clear political vision on this. This can be seen in two levels:

At the party level

The first step of instituting democratic change is by ensuring the participation of youth, women, and non-ELF-RC members as well as by reflecting the diversity of our society on political participation. The issue of participation is what we call democratic change.

At the country level

To ensure public participation in the national program, the government programs should embody political process and policy making as a sole right of the people. For example, majority of our people live on farm subsistence. In this, the policy we formulate should enable farmers to exercise their own choices and development programs. It is imperative that the national programs are geared towards eliminating obstacles farmers may face.

At the level of African experience

In general, Africans have not had a chance to own political process and decision-making power in their respective national political systems. How about us - how are we preparing to avoid such negative experience? The answer is public participation in all spheres of our country. For this to happen, the public participation must be translated into holding the government and administrative institutions accountable. Similarly, public participation must promote transparency in government and in other institutions of the country.

Therefore, to achieve the foregoing objectives, the role of the party in building democratic Eritrea should focus on the following:

·         The party we establish should play a role in building relationship between people and state on one hand, and clarifying and preparing future relationship between people and government on the other.

·         The party we establish should acquire a new and creative way of presenting and explaining its political programs to the public.

·         The party should play a role in explaining the significance and importance of public participation on political process and change.

·         The party we establish should encourage establishment of independent civic societies both to advocate for human and democratic rights and to hold governmental and political party institutions accountable. 

·         Our fundamental objective is to build a democratic Eritrea by implementing our political program as well as by becoming a responsible government.

1.5    Formulate economic policy that encourages capital investment

Formulating economic policy that encourages capital investment is the fifth pillar in our political program. We view unbalanced and unfair free market competition as an obstacle to our economic policy; such type of market competition not only creates a wide gap between rich and poor, but also denies and prevents the poor sector of our society from coming up to the speed and compete in the market. Again, this brings wealth disparities among different sectors of our society.  Hence, it is imperative our party understands the negative ramifications of unfair free market competition, and takes measures to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

1.6    Create balanced economic development and equitable social justice policy

Creating balanced economic development and equitable social justice policy is the sixth pillar in our political program. As the majority of our people live in abject poverty, the party’s vision must be geared towards formulating a social justice and balanced development policy that eradicates poverty and alleviates the suffering of our people. Not only this, but also our policy should create favorable conditions to enable our people to participate in planning and solving their own problems. Following are some important points:

·         Equal economic development programs for all: such as food security, infrastructure, agriculture, water projects, public health and others.

·         Majority of our population lacks modern education and skills. In order to develop the economy and increase the growth and production, our party will focus on human capacity building, mainly developing modern professional education, technical, vocational and others.

·         Create special programs to improve the life standard of the needy and disadvantaged part of our society.

·         Ensure equal and just development of cultures, languages, and customs of our people

2. How should our party’s internal operation (function) work?

Before discussing our party’s internal operation, it is vital to assess our experience in the past. What is our experience in the past?

In general, our experience in managing politics is reminiscent of armed struggle. In particular, this experience is the result of our military culture and behavior. In fact, the military culture experience has shaped our approach to politics, to our interactions, and to resolving our conflicts. Of course, military culture had played a role in pre independence Eritrea. However, in the current struggle for democratic change, the military culture we inherited from the liberation era not only stands in the way of change but also presents some obstacles.

Some obstacles we inherited from our military experience that stands in the way of democratic change, and how they guide our feelings: for example, construing political difference as personal conflict, rejecting diversity of opinions, obeying rules (submission to authority), and controlling.  Lack of transparency, secretive style of communication, defamation, intolerance, unforgiving, usage of violent means to resolve conflicts, and espousing narrow organizational practices are some examples.

The preceding political cultures are antithetical to civil ideas, transparency, dialogue, forgiveness, and diversity of opinions. Such culture exemplifies no national responsibility. The result of all this represents violence and betrayal of our people, a culture being perpetuated by PFDJ. In order to prevent such betrayal from occurring again, our party should play a role in instituting and developing new political culture.

Certainly, our opposition to PFDJ does not emanate from historical animosity or resentment. Instead, we oppose PFDJ for the following reasons:

·         The regime of PFDJ is not ready for democratic change.

·         The regime of PFDJ perpetuates violence and domination through its military culture it inherited from the armed struggle.

·         The regime of PFDJ denies our people from participating in the political decision-making process. This is why we oppose PFDJ. 

What about us, are we free from the armed struggle military culture and ideas? Are we ready for change?

No doubt, opposing the repressive regime of PFDJ alone does not make us principled and trustworthy democrats ready to assume the responsibility of change. However, we can be if we are ready to embrace both the process of democratic change and the political culture and at the same time if we free ourselves from the military culture and behavior. Such readiness as well as embracing the democratic and political culture change is the only viable process that would enable us to be an alternative to PFDJ regime.

To go back to our initial question and that is, how should our party’s internal method of operation (its internal organizations, how it functions inside the party, its practices) work?

The party’s internal practices and dynamism are the main standards used to determine the development of democratic change. Internal party practices and organization (method of operation) not only promotes democratic change, but also introduces new political culture into the party’s life. What is new political culture?

New political culture, it means the party will be internally democratic. After all, internal party democracy cannot be differentiated from the democratic change we intend to bring to our country. Only internal party democratic change and internal democratic practices guarantee and ensure a democratic change at the country level. 

New political culture, it means instituting governance based on civic ideas and consciousness. Instituting civic ideas is demonstrated by having public political participation; by applying dialogue, rule of law, and reconciliation to resolve social and political conflicts; and by electing a civilian to lead the national defense forces.

New political culture, it means adopting transparency as a culture in our political practices, decision-making, and debates.

New political culture, it means having party leadership accountable to its party and its institutions.

New political culture, it means making use of modern and advanced communication technology by our party. Similarly, a party that does not make use of modern communication technology to convey its messages on a timely and efficient manner, it faces difficulty to make a transition to the next generation.

New political culture, it means having a party that believes not only on the present change, but also envisions future change and makes necessary preparation for it.

In addition, during the process of change and instituting new political culture, our political debate should reflect our national interest, our party programs, and above all our common understanding on democracy. If our political debate is not based on such considerations, the result becomes unproductive and trivial.

Obviously, political culture and debate are the result of differing political visions and political circumstances. However, any political vision is nothing if it is not translated into programs and policies, and meets the expectation of the people. This occurs only when our party creates a favorable condition for the public to add its voice without any concern.  In addition, such practices conform to democratic principles such as transparency and accountability for which our party in process strives to embrace.

3. How should the style (form) and method of operation (structure) of the party leadership work?

 How should the style and method of party leadership work?

The objective of this topic is to underline our vision on the significance of leadership style and quality needed for the new change. Here, the main standards of measurement for our democratic practices are style, quality, and method of conducting organizational activities by the leadership. A leader in our context is participative and advocate whose leadership style is to reflect and embrace the diversity of our society: ethnic groups, languages, and religions; and youth and women. We also ought to understand that representation should not be traded off with ineffective and incompetent leaders.

Related to the leadership style and its method of managing the organizational activities – are some questions that our party needs to begin addressing:

1.        The party needs to have a standard, in which it measures leaders’ effectiveness on their leadership activities (practices), leadership concepts, and readiness to introduce a new culture of leadership. This standard is not aimed at evaluating one leader or individual, but at the general style and method of the leadership of the party.

2.        Candidates for party leadership: the party prepares a panel of experts and experienced individuals to set a standard for evaluating and supporting candidates for leadership.

3.        Future leaders: the party requires a mechanism by which it introduces its future leaders.

4.        The party requires an institution for evaluating the leadership’s style and method of operation.

In conclusion, I would like to pose a question, and that is “how do we identify a leader?” Based on our vision, some important factors would help us identify a leader:

·         A  leader is one who motivates, drives, and shoulders the responsibility of the process of change

·         A leader must have a thorough understanding of the party programs.

·         A leader is one who feels an obligation to their responsibilities.

·         A leader must perform the assigned task.

·         A leader is one who demonstrates transparency both in decision-making process and in carrying out their job activities.

·         A leader must provide timely information to members.

·         The difference between a leader and party members is a division of roles and responsibilities.

·         A leader is one whose leadership style is to bring different ideas together, and to understand the circumstance and development of the society.

·         A leader is one who has a sense of awareness and sound understanding on future development both at the country and at the international level (a leader who predicts future challenges and prepares a solution)

·         Party leadership must be ready to shoulder the responsibility of the country. On the other hand, leading both a party and a country requires continuous self-improvements and leadership trainings.

This is the vision of our party in brief. I hope the presentation would serve as a starting point for our discussion. As you know, the objective of today’s conference is to enrich and develop our draft political platform; and we are certain that we will receive a productive input to our draft platform during the course of the discussion.

Thank you for listening.